Dessert Cup Recipes

My husband's youngest sister loves sweets, but she often finds desserts to be too sweet for her palate. Baklava, for instance, is overwhelming for her. I found a remedy to this situation by adding berries. The fruits help balance the sweetness of the dessert by adding natural acidity.

I started by preparing a traditional baklava. Once it had cooled, I filled the dessert with a thin layer of freshly crushed berries, topped with a layer of mascarpone cheese to again reduce the sweetness (and for extra decadence) and garnished the finished product with fresh berries.

Don't be intimidated by the photo of today's dessert, because these little dessert cups are so easy to make! As long as you have lemon curd and wonton wrappers, the preparation will take no time.

I've made a lot of jars of Meyer lemon curd over the last few days and I used one of them to create this dessert. I folded in a bit of sweetened whipped cream so the mousse was light and airy and used it to fill the shaped and baked wonton cups. A topping of my citron confit and a dash of powdered sugar made the cutest garnish that also acted as a reminder of the flavors of this elegant dessert.

I've recently received feedback about PhamFatale, saying that some of the recipes I post seem too complicated and the instructions can sometimes be a bit intimidating. If that describes you, then you are going to love this recipe. It may look fancy and complex, but it’s actually very simple.

The basics of these cute little desserts are roasted figs in individual baked lavash bread cups. I filled the edible cups with store-bought instant pistachio pudding and sprinkled the top of the fruit with crushed pistachios to repeat the flavor from the filling. I prepared the receptacle for each dessert by molding rounds of lavash bread in the cavity of mini-tart pans. I separately roasted fresh figs from our garden that I drizzled with flavorful maple syrup. Doesn't that sound yummy?

It took me no time to complete this elegant-looking sweet treat. So next time you want to serve dessert, give this recipe a try. If you really want to impress your friends, call it "figues rôties à la pistache". French names make everything sound fancy!

The summer weather in the San Francisco Bay Area has been pretty dreadful for the fruits and vegetables in our garden, with one major exception. We were able to pick a basketful of the ripest mulberries from the tree in our garden. We’re all happy to just graze from the tree every afternoon, but for fun today I made mulberry mousse. I piped it into edible cups made from lavash flat bread.

Just like beets, there's one downside to cooking with mulberries: this fruit stains. So make sure you wear dark-colored clothes and do not place them on a marble baking slab!

It's National Cheesecake Day this weekend and, though I’ve made many cheesecakes in the past, my goal was to put a new twist on the special dessert. Since we were invited to our friend Carol's home (she’s gluten intolerant), I decided to make my cheesecake gluten-free.

I made the mousse egg-free and flavored it with both raspberries and strawberries. For a contrast in texture, I added a layer of crunchy, diced yellow nectarines. And to make it look more fun, I topped the dessert cups with pistachio-flavored whipped cream and crushed pistachios. I don’t think anyone missed the crust. For those who could eat gluten, I slipped a ladyfinger cookie into the verrine. How amazing does that sound?